It Should Be A Law That If It’s Raining And You Wake Up Feeling Comfy In Bed You Shouldn’t Have To

Lateron Arms: Greez Dritus edition

(thanks @cosmic-castor-canadensis for the idea!)

We're talking about arms today! More specifically, what do you do when you have a human actor (with two arms) playing a Star Wars alien with four arms?

The Cast And Characters Of Jedi: Fallen Order featurette shows Daniel Roebuck with two pads strapped to each side of his mocap suit. It's a simple, smart way to create space for Greez' secondary limbs, without compromising the actor's performance.

Cutscenes in the Jedi games are a mix of performance capture data (PCAP) and hand-key animation from the artists at Respawn. So Greez is created by two actors: Danny's on-set performance, and the additional performance from the animator. Greez' double set of arms is a perfect way to explore that teamwork.

Greez is an expressive guy, and his Lateron personality shows up in both his voice and his arms. It's not uncommon to see all four arms moving in unison - but there's usually a slight offset between the primary and secondary limbs. This keeps the smaller arms from looking like they're "on strings" and puppeteered by the arms above. Sometimes the gesture is the same, but the position of the hands or wrists differs slightly. It's possible the same PCAP data is applied to both arms, then re-timed or adjusted slightly.

Sometimes Greez' arms move with a left/right split, usually while piloting the Mantis as he keeps his left arms on the controls. Very occasionally he gestures with just one side of his arms, seen in the alt-angle cutscene here and at the start of the post.

More often, Greez gestures with a upper/lower split, creating two different poses with each set of arms. Why pick one expression when you can have two? It's possible the animator referenced an unused take of Daniel's performance for the secondary gesture, or it was created completely from scratch. The goal is to enhance Greez' character and not interfere/clip with his primary arms' movement in each scene.

There's some really thoughtful decision making that happens with Greez' extra limbs. I love how he clasps his hands both in front and behind his body here - and how his arms separately cycle through different gestures to show his increased frustration and concern.

When his primary arms are occupied (carrying a tray, grabbing a cup) Greez' secondary arms become more active (gesturing independently, adjusting his seat on the crate)

But the secondary arms are just as comfortable taking a break while the primary arms do the talking, which makes the animator's job a lot simpler too. Still, that slight adjustment in his second left arm keeps it feeling alive even when not actively "participating" in the conversation.

Greez has a lot to say and needs every available hand to say it, which is great synergy between his design and personality. It's a fun puzzle from a technical standpoint, and allows his character to have a unique silhouette compared to the human-shaped members of the Mantis Crew.

You made it to the end, so here's a four-armed hug <3

Every now and again I think of this Sarah tweet and just stare into the middle distance.

the secret lives of real birbs!

writing is hard but coming up with a cunty title and catchy summary will slay even god's strongest soldier

People who hate Frodo Baggins are my enemy. "He didn't do anything and was useless"--yeah, okay, so what you're not understanding is that he was the sacrificial lamb. He endured physical, mental, and emotional torment that got worse and worse as his will broke. Everyone knew this. EVERYONE KNEW THIS. That's why everyone was devastated about it. Because Frodo was the most innocent among them, that was the entire point. He represented ordinary peaceful people being destroyed by the horrors of war. And as a hobbit he also represented some of the last vestiges of magic in what was basically a post magic apocalypse.

Frodo was basically an innocent puppy thrown into the Torment Nexus so that EVERYONE ELSE could maybe have a hope of surviving. And he did that willingly. HE DID IT OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, KNOWING IT WOULD RUIN HIM.

Frodo haters won't see the light of heaven

'Your version of Cal runs a pet insta account for BD. It's how the empire keep finding him.' - my partner, walking into the living room to discover me taking small f-stop photos of BD-1 again.

Cal's instagram account:

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cal.kestis Throwback Thursday! #droidstagram #droidposting #BD-1

Leia Organa

sometimes your distress does indicate you should stop and respect your limitations. at other times it's more of a baby aquatic mammal being introduced to water for the first time thing. Too bad the difference is so hard to tell.

I know this is going to make me sound pretensions but I have to get it off my chest. I feel an unimaginable rage when someone posts a photo and is like "this picture looks like a renaissance painting lol" when the photo clearly has the lighting, colors and composition of a baroque or romantic painting. There are differences in these styles and those differences are important and labeling every "classical" looking painting as renaissance is annoying and upsetting to me. And anytime I come across one of those posts I have to put down my phone and go take a walk because they make me so mad